Eagle Scouts (l-r): Ryan Dean, Austin Jordan, Brooks Hess, Marlowe Elmiger, and Dominic Krueger. Bob Ott, Chartered Org Representative, introduced the Eagle Candidates and helped to present the Eagle Awards, along with Scoutmaster Jim Flowers (not pictured).
Thanks to Janis Hylton of the Cobb Master Gardeners and the Wright Environmental Education Center, for the information and photo:
The Master Gardeners and Volunteers at Wright Environmental Education Center are proud of and grateful to the recently-awarded Eagle Scouts who accomplished their Eagle projects on the property. Ryan Dean, Brooks Hess, and Dominic Krueger received their Eagle Awards at the Boy Scout Troop 1011 Court of Honor at Mt. Bethel UMC on Sunday, January 31, along with Marlowe Elmiger and Austin Jordan. All completed very meaningful projects.
The Eagle projects at Wright Center are:
Ryan Dean expanded the Frog Pond and installed a new liner. His team caught the frogs and tadpoles, drained the pond, excavated a new section and replaced the old liner with a new one. New pond plants were added along with a ton of large rocks laid around the perimeter on which the frogs can sun themselves. The project helps facilitate the growth of the frog population.
Brooks Hess and his team built a Plant Jail – four walls rising above a raised platform floor with bars installed in two of the walls. The structure is an invasive plant exhibit designed as a display area for the “dirty dozen” most prevalent invasive plants at Wright and to teach others about the damage that invasive plants do.
Dominic Krueger made several improvements at Wright. He built and installed rustic benches and a swing to provide convenient seating on the front porch of the education center. He and his team also planted native plants.
Judy Beard, Master Gardener Chair at Wright Center, and MG Janis Hylton attended the ceremony to honor the Scouts and their families.
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From our calendar listings are two free events this week for green thumbs, thanks to Cobb Master Gardeners:
On Tuesday, from 6-8 p.m. is the Gardeners’ Night Out session at the East Cobb Library (4880 Lower Roswell Road), with the subject being Dahlias, including how to prepare for spring planting;
On Thursday, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. is a Native Plants Workshop at the Wright Environmental Education Center (2661 Johnson Ferry Road), with an emphasis on invasive plants that threaten them. Parking is available next door at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church.
Check out our full calendar listings for more things to do in East Cobb. Send your calendar items to: calendar@eastcobbnews.com.
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East Cobb citizens had their say at several budget town hall meetings this summer, including at the Sewell Mill Library on July 9, shortly before commissioners voted to raise property taxes. (East Cobb News file photo)
Whenever the subject of a Cobb tax increase comes up, those who say “no” the loudest and most often quite often have prevailed.
Especially after I returned to the county in 1990, the “nos” have frequently had the ear of elected officials.
They have done almost anything to heed those citizens who urge them to: Cut wasteful spending. Impose a hiring freeze. Take care of needs instead of wants. Live within your means, just like we do.
These have been the bedrock principles of low-tax conservatism for as long as I can remember growing up in Cobb County.
Cobb became a magnet for new residents and businesses in large part because of low taxes. That’s still a big attraction, but so are good government services and schools. As a result, Cobb’s explosive growth, especially in the last 30 years, has generated another constituency.
These citizens, coming from all across the county, and representing many demographic and socioeconomic classes and interest levels, effectively countered the “no” forces during the budget deliberations that concluded this week with a general fund property tax rate increase of 1.7 mills.
Those citizens have been extremely vocal over the past few months about supporting the services they feared were being imperiled as a $30 million deficit loomed.
As draft lists were made public about potential “savings” in library and park services, the UGA Cobb Extension service and other small-bore line items, these citizens formed their own groups. Some started on Facebook, then fanned out to attend budget town hall meetings and public hearings and urged their members to tell commissioners what they valued.
They were every bit as active and organized as those who opposed a tax increase. At this point, the naysayers may wish to point out that citizens were whipped up into a frenzy by Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, who cited the need for a millage rate increase to keep Cobb “a five-star county.”
I wrote previously that there was some emotional blackmail involved as these lists were made public. I also wrote that a tax increase was likely. For far too long, Cobb elected officials have been fearful of getting an earful from those who always say “no.”
The problem with always saying no is that the provision of services wasn’t keeping up with the demand. Even as Cobb’s population grew from 450,000 in 1990 to more than 750,000 today, commissioners were gradually reducing the millage rate.
A post-recession situation emerged in which library hours hadn’t been restored, Cobb DOT maintenance crews hadn’t been replenished and the county had to hire dozens of new police officers.
Members of the Cobb Master Gardeners spoke in favor of preserving the UGA Cobb Extension Service.
As I listened to those who were saying “yes,” I heard the voices of Cobb citizens adamantly insisting that the services they valued were worth a few extra dollars a month on their tax bill.
Among those standing up were members of the Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County. I’ve been hearing from them all summer. They work with the UGA Cobb Extension Office, which runs the local 4-H program and gets equal funding from the county and the state.
Also saying “yes” were some citizens who identified themselves as fiscal conservatives. These weren’t garden variety Berkeley radicals but suburban gardeners. They were also library and arts patrons and everyday people not prone to political activism.
None of those saying “yes” that I heard this summer are wild about a tax increase. I’m certainly not, but Cobb leaders have been dodging this bullet for too many years. After playing ball with the Atlanta Braves, they cut the millage rate in 2016, right before SunTrust Park became operational.
To me, that was the height of fiscal irresponsibility. Yet many proud fiscal conservatives have ignored that this summer, or belatedly sprung to action. The local newspaper fulminated in a thunderclap editorial that Boyce went against his promises of no new taxes, and fretted that “conservatism has fallen out of fashion” yet again.
(I’d argue that real, principled conservatism went out of fashion when the four members of the commission who are Republicans voted to subsidize a baseball stadium, an action the daily printed edition uncritically approved. The lone Democrat, occasionally slammed by the same publication, cast the only vote against it.)
Earlier this month, citizens against a tax increase lobbied for a hiring freeze, even as DOT, public safety and other positions have been frozen for several years.
The day before the budget vote, the Cobb GOP passed a resolution against a tax increase with plenty of boilerplate language, but no tangible suggestions to balance the budget.
Commissioner Bob Ott
JoAnn Birrell and Bob Ott, East Cobb’s commissioners, were on the short end of the 3-2 vote. Birrell wanted a smaller increase, Ott wanted to see more proposed spending cuts.
The decisive vote was cast by Bob Weatherford, drubbed the day before in a runoff against a tax increase opponent, but who said it was time for the county to invest its future.
Though his support for a tax increase may have cost him his political future, Weatherford’s rationale was certainly different than what we’re accustomed to in Cobb. So is Boyce’s, whether he runs for re-election in two years or not. Both are Republicans.
What looms ahead remains uncertain. I wonder if 1.7 mills will be enough of an increase to avoid another rough budget process next year. There are efficiencies that have to be considered that Boyce ignored in this budget.
Ott offered some sound spending proposals that deserve attention. Foremost is reforming the county’s existing defined benefit pension plan, which is a ticking time bomb for many governments. SPLOST reform also must be addressed.
More than anything, I hope citizens who participated in the budget battle this summer, both in favor of a tax hike or against, continue to stay active. Their voices and diligence and willingness to question how their money is being spent are needed.
No matter your views on a tax increase, it was encouraging to see such vigorous civic involvement, especially from those who don’t normally speak out.
Before Wednesday’s vote, former Gov. Roy Barnes, who holds a 4-H gala at his Marietta home every fall, said to the commissioners that local government is “government in the raw.”
We may be about to find out what that truly means, even after this grueling summer.
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The Hyde brothers were the last in a long line of family farmers in what was rural East Cobb County. The Hyde property, located at the end of the road named for them, Hyde Road, runs off Lower Roswell Road. It is now owned by Cobb County government who have allocated a piece of land and have partnered with the Cobb Master Gardeners to create the brand new Hyde Farm Community Garden. The space is completely fenced with irrigation available and will be comprised of 40 garden plots measuring 4 ft. by 8 ft. each.
“It will be a fantastic space for our community! We believe community gardens really connect people to their food, their land and each other,” says Master Gardener Randy Threatte.
Plots will be filled with excellent planting soil from SuperSo Soil3 and will be ready for planting winter crops and herbs around Thanksgiving. Plots are available to rent at a cost of $50/year for a 12-month growing season from March 1 through February 28. The first gardeners renting will get an added advantage of an additional free 3 months as the first rental year will run from November 2017 through February 2019. Two handicap accessible raised beds are available as well as two beds with priority to veterans. Reservations may be made on a first come first serve basis by contacting Master Gardener Randy Threatte at 404-431-3112 or threatte@bellsouth.net. Educational gardening and seed starting classes will also be held at the property – free and open to the public.
The McFarlane Nature Park features a 1940s-era country home and nature garden that’s open to the public. (East Cobb News photos and slideshow by Wendy Parker)
At the end of a short gravel road off Paper Mill Road is a slice of Southern rural life that’s been preserved close to what its longtime owner had in mind. In addition to a rustic farm home and wide open green spaces, the McFarlane Nature Park also includes a nature garden that was featured on Sunday as part of the first East Cobb Garden Tour. Four nearby private homes also were part of the tour.
The dining room of the 1941 home, designed by Henry Toombs, architect of the Little White House in Warm Springs. Florence and William McFarlane bought the house in 1958. John Stewart has been caretaker at McFarlane for 22 years. Valerie Stewart, John’s wife and also a caretaker, points out the wall and ceiling panels that were part of the home’s original construction.A guest room on the ground floor. The home has two chimneys and four fireplaces, including one with materials from the Sope Creek quarry.
The McFarlanes rode horses and raised lineage dogs on their property, which at one time stretched to 1,500 acres. When Florence McFarlane died in 1990, she stated in her will a desire to keep the remaining 11.5 acres of her property for a natural preserve and green space, instead of suburban development.
After court rulings, the non-profit Cobb Land Trust became the lease owner of the McFarlane property in 1992, and the nearby Chattahoochee Plantation Community Association donated funding for repairs and renovations that were needed. Restoring McFarlane was the first project for the Cobb Land Trust, which preserves land and property with historical and cultural value.
Before the McFarlanes lived here, the land was part of a larger agricultural spread owned by Hughes Spalding Sr., a noted Atlanta attorney.
Flowers and plants on the McFarlane property are tended to by volunteers from Cobb Master Gardeners, which has a spring flower show here in the spring. Continued support also comes from the Chattahoochee Plantation Women’s Club and there have been Art in the Park fundraisers since 2013.
Garden paths are common throughout the McFarlane property, which also has a pavilion and picnic tables. The paths have been built and maintained by local boys as part of their Eagle Scout commitments. East Cobb resident Ed Cahill painting in the nature garden.
